So the story is about Olav, a hitman in Oslo, told from his first-person perspective. Except that he is a compassionate “fWhat an unusual crime novel!

So the story is about Olav, a hitman in Oslo, told from his first-person perspective. Except that he is a compassionate “fixer”, which means that when he “fixes” somebody that his mafia boss needs “fixed”, he has a guilty conscience that haunts him. For example, he decided to donate most of his life savings to the wife one of the men he fixed, because he felt bad that the children would grow up without a father.

Also, he is a hopeless romantic. He cares deeply about two women who are related to different men he had fixed at separate points of his life, and throughout the course of the story is revealed how one of these women could potentially bring doom to him.

All in all, I find some of his thoughts on his boss, his fellow mafia members, and the women he loved to be humorous, which at times made me wonder: did Jo Nesbø really write this? The writing style is so different from his Harry Hole novels. Perhaps because there is moral ambiguity on both the protagonist and antagonist side alike, thus the tension is lifted... No longer does Jo Nesbø have a protagonist who is searching for a bad guy, because Olav IS the bad guy!

And he is resourceful when it comes to evading detection from the police. For example, when he is fleeing from a crime scene, he tries to walk as normally as possible. And if he happens to see a police car heading past his direction, he would turn around and walk in the direction of the crime scene itself! The logic being the fact that the culprit would always be walking AWAY from the crime scene instead of INTO the crime scene, so he applies reverse psychology to the cops’ mindset.

Such a worthy reading. I am looking forward to read more of Jo Nesbø’s works with this style....more

This novel by the talented writer Leila Slimani is incisive in buildingWarning: This review ahead contains spoilers. Proceed reading at your own risk!

This novel by the talented writer Leila Slimani is incisive in building up the tension and revealing a toxic personality that has been piling up for decades.

Louise, a white French nanny, is hired by Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer and her husband Paul Massé to look after their two kids so they could work in peace. This nanny came with glowing reviews from previous employers, all saying what a great nanny she once was to their kids, as she was able to take care of the children as well as doing things beyond her obligation such as cooking for the family and organizing birthday parties.

All of this turned out to be true, except for the fact that Louise seemed to be treating the kids, Mila and Adam, as her own kids. With a deceased husband and an estranged daughter in her late 20s, Louise started embedding her own ways more deeply into the life of the Massé family, as the busy couple relied more and more on her for many parental responsibilities, including tucking them into bed at night.

Throughout the novel there are third-person flashbacks from the perspective of others not related to Massé family who bore witness to Louise’s own descent into a life filled with piling debts and her own penchant for violence (as shown when she beat her own daughter Stéphanie after the girl got expelled).

The English translation could be clunky at times, for example I found “ambulance man” instead of a more concise term “paramedic”. The translator also chose the British English “nappy” (“diaper” in AmE) throughout the novel despite preferring the American English term “stroller” instead of the British English term “pram”. However, this does not detract from the suspense-building as the author itself is an immensely gifted one who could captivate the reader so much.

This novel is reminiscent of the 2011 American black comedy film “Bernie” starring Jack Black in the way that it started off with an act of violence by a seemingly upstanding citizen in the first few pages, and then the remainder of the novel tries to explain that person’s downward spiral into violence...what made her snap?

At times, one could not help but sympathize with the cards that the nanny had to handle, as she was eager to accept more and more responsibilities from the Massé couple without complaints, while ignoring her own problems that threatened to overwhelm her senses one day.

As she became more compulsive and obsessive in wanting things to be done in certain ways, Myriam sensed that it was perhaps time to terminate the nanny’s employment. But she was halfhearted in doing so, as she saw no other person who could replace Louise in terms of the responsibilities that she had so graciously accepted. She had become a “third parent” in the family, dictating certain ways on how the kids should eat, what kind of television shows they are allowed to watch, etc.

Though started with a solid ending, at times this second installment in the Harry Hole series feels more like an avenue for the author Jo Nesbø to boaThough started with a solid ending, at times this second installment in the Harry Hole series feels more like an avenue for the author Jo Nesbø to boast how much he had researched the background setting, including the Thai slangs and seedy areas that became places of interest.

For example, it is astonishing to see how many of the Thai characters could interact with Harry in fluent English. Some were described as speaking English with heavy accent, and yet I did not once notice anyone in the novel replying to English questions with one-word sentences like the vast majority of Southeast Asians do.

There are a lot of crimes mentioned in the book that are unfortunately based on real-life examples (especially when it comes to human trafficking), and for those who are curious of what happened in this underworld without having to see gory images on Netflix documentaries, this novel is a must-read.

Apart from that, the murderer in the novel turns out to be rather easy to predict in the middle of the story, as the culprit would inadvertently reveal his/her own identity to Harry by saying the wrong thing.

There is a key character whose fate remains unknown at the conclusion of the novel. I wish I could’ve known what happened to that poor character, but oh well.

The whole ending seemed somewhat rushed and it made me feel like I was in the middle of a Jason Bourne’s gunshoot scenes.

One thing to be noted though: Harry’s sister’s rape was apparently mentioned in the first installment The Bat, and it became a recurring theme that haunts Harry as he is still looking for the culprit behind this rape. However, I can’t recall this incident because unfortunately I did not have the chance to review that first novel. My memory of what Harry experienced in Australia is somewhat vague due to my lack of written review, so perhaps I should reread that novel in the near future......more

When I read the description from reviews that the novel is a fable, I thought it was going to involve talking aWhoa.

This story is lots of fun to read!

When I read the description from reviews that the novel is a fable, I thought it was going to involve talking animals and other absurdities. But no, all of the adventures that the main protagonist Vatanen had gone through with his beloved hare could have been made into a live action movie without much CGI, save for the loyal movements of the hare towards its master, which could at times mimic those of a golden retriever dog.

After Vatanen’s leave from his 9-to-5 stable job in Helsinki, he found out that the hare which his vehicle had struck had become a better companion than his wife ever was. So he decided to sell some of his most prized possessions in a snap in order to be able to walk away from it all.

What follows is a great adventure living off the forest by felling trees, finding Nazi-era treasures to sell them (which is illegal by the way, because any Nazi artifacts legally belong to Allied Power countries), and fixing lodges.

Though hailing from the south of Finland, Vatanen later trekked his way up to Lapland (the north of Finland) and even unknowingly crossed the border to Soviet Russia much later in the book. I did not care much for the names of the areas (except by doing Google search on the locations of Helsinki, Lapland, and the Finland-Russia border towns in the Karelia), but reading this novel makes me a lot wiser as I found out that it is entirely possible for Finnish (and perhaps other Scandinavians as well) to ski from town to town instead of walking or driving.

I chortled a lot throughout the story, and I thank the author Arto Paasilinna for that. A skim on his Goodreads profile shows that he has had a few of his other works translated into English and/or French, so I am looking forward to read more of his novels in the future!...more

As I leaf through the pages of this fascinating children’s book about trains, I keep wondering to myself, “Why?? Why was the United States so innovatiAs I leaf through the pages of this fascinating children’s book about trains, I keep wondering to myself, “Why?? Why was the United States so innovative in developing trains in the 1800s but now has fallen behind European and East Asian countries???”

As of 2017, the only operational high-speed train in the United States is the Amtrak Acela Express, running from Boston to Washington D.C. with 14 stops in between. No other high-speed trains in other parts of the country, and no maglev train is currently operational in any parts of the United States....more

An autobiographical graphic novel reminiscent of Guy Delisle’s works, I love it! For the first few pages I even opened the author information page, maAn autobiographical graphic novel reminiscent of Guy Delisle’s works, I love it! For the first few pages I even opened the author information page, making sure that Guy Delisle wasn’t among the illustrators.

The story tells of Findakly’s years of growing up as a Christian French-Iraqi in Mosul, and her later years in Paris. Each page is a stand-alone story, which kinda annoys me sometimes because some of the stories are told not in chronological order, but to give readers background knowledge of what is going on (especially regarding the politics of Iraq from the 1950s to 1980s and how it affected ordinary Iraqis like her own family members).

I’d love to read more of Findakly and her partner Trondheim’s works if they are to make more of these stories!...more

This Korean novel is about four youths in the 1980s who found themselves questioning everything they held dear in their lives when faced with sudden tThis Korean novel is about four youths in the 1980s who found themselves questioning everything they held dear in their lives when faced with sudden tragedies.

In terms of the writing style, I particularly like how the characters, being college students themselves, make literary and cultural references such as quoting Kafka or seeing Arnold Böcklin’s famous “Isle of the Dead” painting in person.

Though it is primarily written from the first-person perspective of Jung Yoon, the novel will also get into the head of her closest male friends (Myungsuh and Dahn), at least in the form of their journals and letters.

Set in the late 1980s South Korea, when the dictatorship of Park Chung-hee was replaced by that of Chun Doo-hwan, there were a lot of mysterious disappearances of student protestors all around the country, and at least one tragedy that appeared in this novel is based on true story of those missing students. It is saddening to see how one of the main protagonists would have to lose his/her life at a time when he/she could be heading into married life and start a career.

How do you face the burden of losing the people you love during the years when you’re about to start your career path? The protagonists of this novel found their own answers in their own ways.

One quote that particularly stands out to me was the words of the much older Jung Yoon herself to college students nearing the closing pages of the book, “I hope you all have someone who makes you want to say ‘Let’s remember this day forever’”. I am noting down this quote so I can say it to my special someone during the days I feel particularly happy....more

A wistful novel set in upstate New York nearing the end of Vietnam War, “A Catalog of Birds” focuses on a recently-returned soldier Billy Flynn who waA wistful novel set in upstate New York nearing the end of Vietnam War, “A Catalog of Birds” focuses on a recently-returned soldier Billy Flynn who was injured —both physically and mentally— from his last battle in Vietnam. He was injured on the right-hand side of his body, in addition to the emotional yet less-visible scar he carries for feeling guilty of having survived the war while his close buddies perished.We will never be entirely sure if the story is meant to be a veiled criticism of the futile war itself, or the inability of the US government to take care of our military veterans well, but it is obvious from the start that the lives of Billy and those around him might never return to “normal” again. The book never even mentions the term PTSD, as the disorder was not commonly-treated back then, but it is evident that PTSD is the overarching theme of Billy’s road to recovery.The book starts with a huge red herring (which I won’t reveal here to avoid spoilers), but this distraction would fool readers into believing that this issue would be resolved at the closing pages. It wouldn’t. Rather, it’s the reaction of those affected by this issue that would ultimately prove to be the cause for redemption —or lack thereof— of the people who were affected.The author Harrington is very adept in using descriptive prose to describe the nature —animate and inanimate ones alike that are found in the environment. I do not even care much for the different type of birds (I cannot even picture a finch or cardinal in my head without doing a Google search), but Harrington can get into detail on the types of birds and the respective noises they make. Hence the title of the novel!The familial relationships among the Flynn family members as well as the romantic relationships they have with other townsfolk also warm the heart at times, as they are the type of close relationship that are to be expected from small town folks. I absolutely love the way Billy and his sister Nell’s relationship are depicted, as they are filled with mutual admiration and respect from one another.There are some religious undertones at times, as the Flynn family is nominally Catholic, but not imposing enough to make the story fall into Christian Fiction genre. For example, Billy’s father Jack prays quite often (as does his sister Sheila), and Father O’Rourke who is the parish priest is shown to be a close friend of the family. Billy often slips in to the confessional box without ever being able to confess his sins in detail, simply because he did things in the war that he was deeply ashamed of (as do most soldiers during war, I suppose).Though there are dreams and wishes that never comes true at the end of the story, it could perhaps serve as a reminder what life expects of us anyway: though we always wish for the best, sometimes there are things that are just not meant to be. Such is life. It goes on....more

This memoir by an undercover South Korean-born journalist working under the guise as a missionary in a Christian-funded university in North Korea is aThis memoir by an undercover South Korean-born journalist working under the guise as a missionary in a Christian-funded university in North Korea is at once both heartwarming and eye-opening.

Unlike most other real-life North Korean-based memoirs out there that were written by/about defectors, this one is written by an outsider who shares her quotidian life in Pyongyang as she taught sons of some of the most powerful families in the capital city from July to December 2011.

I really enjoy reading about the innocence of the young students in their late teens who are untainted by video games, internet, or pornography, but at the same time show great curiosity for girls and anything that lies beyond their closed regime. Naturally, the names and identities of her students and fellow colleagues in the university had been altered to protect their identities.

The author Kim Suki had taken great pains to secretly write this memoir during her time there. Her goal in here is thus primarily not to defend the regime or repeat ad nauseam about the gulags that you might have seen on National Geographic, but to humanize the North Koreans she had come to know in person, who, despite their pledged loyalty to their Great Leader, may one day lead and open up their country to the outside world....more